Exit Ribadu?

0 views
Skip to first unread message

Gemini

unread,
Dec 30, 2007, 5:49:33 AM12/30/07
to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Between Wole Soyinka and Kennedy Emetulu, another take on the Ribadu affair from Chidi Odinkalu.  His last sentence about our responsibility as citizens is actually what I had in mind in the NYT article that quotes me as referring to public opinion.  I should also add that there are questions about the accuracy of the claim that Ribadu had himself put in for the course that he's now being sent on because he thought he'd become IGP.  It could be part of justification spin.  And honestly, police officers can be so cruel to each other that nothing would surprise me.  On the other hand, you on the other side of the pond can better assess the impact on the 'inside the beltway crowd' of President Yar'Adua's visit to the US: for me, as I didn't see his television interview or press conference, the AFRICOM aspect dominates my perceptions about that trip.
Ayo
 

Warmest compliments of this season of some really awful news.
 
Politics is often about the management of perceptions. It is very much the case that most Nigerians probably believe that some malign forces in or close to government have found a way to ease out this Chair-person of the EFCC. This much is a no-brainer. A government like this one with severe legitimacy problems could have found other ways to achieve this end....Or may be not.   
 
A fortnight ago, President Yar'Adua was in Washington. By common consent of the inside-the-Beltway crowd, he left a positive impression, largely purchased by his perceived commitment to fighting corruption. It is plainly cack-handed to come up with this the week after he returned on this anti-corruption sales pitch. If the idea was already on the cards, why wasn't the idea of change in the management of the anti-corruption agencies pitched and explained then? If it wasn't, then serious questions need to be asked about the processes of decision making and public communication in the administration. 
 
But, come to think of it, why would a regime that finds ways to "win" elections without our votes owe us explanation for what it does without our mandate?
 
There is recent precedent for this kind of thing. At the height of the 3rd term dispute last year, then Federal Attorney-General, Bayo Ojo, contrived to fire the then Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission. The publicly stated reason was that the Executive Secretary was a civil servant who could be recalled at the whim of his line Minister.  The relevant Act establishing the Commission gave the Executive Secretary protected tenure. When this argument wouldn't wash, they sought to smear the man with allegations of mis-conduct that were shown to be both ill-motivated and un-founded. In the end, they sent him to Kuru. He has just finished the course. The man's real crime was that he took a public and principled line against third term and mobilised African national human rights institutions to condemn tenure extension.
 
To conclude the story, they found a regime-compliant Executive Secretary, who happily stayed quiet through the remainder of the third term argument and its aftermath and also somehow managed to issue the only monitoring report that found Nigeria's 2007 Presidential elections very free and very fair!
 
If we can get around the tendeny to personalise issues I can see very many points of agreement in the reactions to what's happening with the EFCC. We are all concerned about Nigeria and about the negative effects of corruption on us all. We want to see corrupt public officers held accountable. We want (an) effective institution(s) to do that. And we want this effectiveness to be sustained and sustainable rather than momentary or tied to the tenure or lifespan of any person.
 
I'm not sure that it's useful one way or the other to use this as a medium to crucify or canonize this Chair-person of the EFCC. He is one individual. Like all of us, he has his flaws. He lived these flaws out on a relatively big stage. He has surely made his mistakes. Some of them may have affected the long term strategic direction of the anti-corruption effort in Nigeria. Unquestionably, however, he has also made a significant contribution in the face of quite severe - some would argue, insuperable - odds. He has surely left lots for any successor inclined to do good to build on, not just in the pending cases or in recovered loot but also in the infrastructure of financial intelligence and training of personnel.  
 
My maternal grand-father who was a local chief always said there are three sides to every story - one side, the other side, and the truth. The truth is sometimes a matter of speculation. It is always necessary, however, to hear the other side and form our views of them. We need to acknowledge that as a law enforcement professional, this chair-person of the EFCC has had a quite spectacular spurt of promotions. In six years, he's been through five rungs, rising from a Chief Superintendent to an Assistant Inspector-General of Police. That comes with expectations, envy, and some belly-aching, not to mention enhanced professional responsibilities. If the carping from all sides didn't weary him, the appetite to catch a breath and get a life probably would have. At the personal level, he will be leaving the EFCC - if he is - with large public sympathy and acclaim that few would have thought possible in the egregious days of the last regime. That means he may yet have lots of shelf-life left in him. 
 
Having said this, it is also the case that pioneering the leadership of the EFCC has itself been more of a training opportunity than the Police or any other institute in Nigeria could have afforded this chair-person of the EFCC. Instead of sending him to Kuru, he could easily have been asked to spend the last year of his current term on a sabbatical doing a written retrospective on his tenure for the benefit of the institution.
 
If a replacement there has to be at the EFCC, we as citizens will have an obligation to ensure that the government does not re-enact the institutional castration act that it accomplished at the National Human Rights Commission less than 24 months ago. That, in my view, is the challenge.
 
Chidi Anselm Odinkalu



Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! for Good
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages